Review: Nars Light Reflecting Loose Setting Powder

        Today's post will be on the highly raved Nars Light Reflecting Loose Setting Powder, which is a relatively new addition to the brand's vast collection. This powder has been sold out at my local Sephora for the past 3 months, so when I saw that it was in stock 2 weeks ago, I HAD to get it (I know, makeup addict problems :3)

Pressed vs. Loose: This powder currently only has 1 variant called "Translucent Crystal", but it comes in 2 different types of formulas: the pressed powder version and the loose powder version. I bought the loose version after swatching both the loose and pressed. I noticed that the pressed version is not as finely milled as the loose version. When I swatches the pressed version I could feel a slight grittiness, perhaps from the crystals, whereas the loose powder felt like a silky soft nothing (as you can tell, I'm really good at describing things *sarcasm*).

Now that we have that out of the way, we can talk about the awesomeness of this powder.

 So What Is It All About Anyway?: What's great about this powder is that it caters to all oily/normal/and dry skin types. The setting powder is a matte finish but the crystals in the powder reflect light to give your skin a luminous (not oily) finish when any source of light hits the face. It's translucent and can be worn by women and men of all skin tones, though I recommend that women of color use a light hand with this product because it can cause a white cast if applied with a heavy hand, as most translucent powders will. 

The powder is infused with "Photochromic Technology", which claims to diffuse and adjust light throughout the day (although I have no idea what that means fo
r your skin aside from possibly looking better than the normal). It has microfine minerals that are abundant in glycerin and vitamins to help with combatting dryness. 

My Thoughts: I immediately noticed how soft and silky it felt on the skin. The crystals are visible but extremely fine. When applied and blended well, the crystals can barely be seen unless you were to stand up-close in front of a mirror to purposely look. This powder lives up to its claims on being lightweight, silky, and ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL ON THE SKIN. I use it as an all-over setting powder after foundation or bb cream and it seals my look and gives an air-brushed look to my skin. Fine lines around my mouth and under-eyes are visibly reduced, the powder doesn't cling to my dry patches, and my T-zone is less oily throughout the day. Most importantly, it keeps my foundation/bb cream in place. 

Another way I would use this powder is to highlight the cheekbones. This gives the most natural highlight if you prefer a very matte finish to the skin and would rather not use this as an all-over powder. When light hits your cheekbones, your cheeks will have the most gorgeous bright sheen to them. 

Overall: Fine, silky, beautiful loose powder that lives up to its claims. A little bit of product goes a long way, so it's worth the price point of $39 CAD.  

Sephora Haul! - Shiseido, Hourglass, Ole Henriksen, Shu Uemura, Marc Jacobs, Josie Maran, and more!

Yay my first haul posted for the blog! Post under the comment section below if any of you lovelies would like a review on any particular product. Have a beautiful day! :)

Marc Jacobs Beauty - Lash Lifter - Gel Volume Mascara

Caudalie - Vinoperfect Enzymatic Peel Mask

Stila - Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer Oil-Free SPF20

Hourglass - Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil

Kat Von D - Tattoo Liner

No Bleeding Lips Secret Lip Liner

Anastasia - Illumin8 Eyeshadow Duo

Stila - Eyeshadow in "Kitten" 

Dior - Dior Addict Lip Maximizer High Volume Lip Plumper 

Shu Uemura - UV Underbase Mousse SPF30 PA+++

Shu Uemura - Silk Smooth Eyeshadow in "White Silver 909" 

Benefit - Benetint

Ole Henriksen - Perfect Truth CC Creme SPF30

Ole Henriksen - Perfect Truth CC Eye Creme SPF15

Josie Maran - Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelée

Josie Maran - Argan Color Stick 

Nars - Light Reflecting Loose Setting Powder

Shiseido - Bio-Performance Super-Refining Essence

Deborah Lippman - Nail Polish in "Happy Birthday"

Review: Sephora Waterproof Smoky Cream Liner - Cafe

Hi beauty enthusiasts! 
Todays review will be on the Sephora Collection Waterproof Smoky Cream Liner. 
Little backstory: I have tried MANY gel eyeliners, from high end to drugstore, with all failing to provide a crease-less wear. I have hooded, oily eyelids and gel eyeliners tend to crease and transfer onto my under-eye area. Many waterproof, long-lasting formulas have failed to be effective on me.

At a reasonable price point of $15 CAD, I figured it was worth a shot after hearing much hype from the Sephora Rep. I purchased the brown shade in "Cafe". To my surprise, this eyeliner exceeded my expectations, and it is easily my favorite gel eyeliner. 

Packaging: Very basic packaging, a simple plastic jar with  4.5g (0.15oz) of product in it. I actually think it's the plastic jar that prevents the liner from drying up so quickly, unlike my MAC gel liner in "Blacktrack" and MAC Paintpot in "Painterly" which are so dry that the product has receded from the edges of its glass container.

Texture: VERY smooth and creamy it's unbelievable! It can definitely be smudged out before it sets for that sultry, smokey, or natural look! Impressively long-lasting on the waterline- although I would personally set it with a similar eyeshadow color to ensure it doesn't budge. 4 months into having this gel eyeliner, it still has not dried up and is still as creamy as when I first purchased it.

Colour: A great dark brown shade that isn't khaki brown in color like a lot of brown eyeliners I've come across. This dark brown shade gives a more natural look than black ( called "Must Have", which I intend on purchasing soon ^^)

Upholding Claims: As it claims, it is a waterproof eyeliner that's long-lasting on the eyes. To test these claims, I swatched the eyeliner and washed my hands with water, then moderately scrubbed the eyeliner. Result: Did not budge, VERY LITTLE of it flaked off, but did NOT smudge. Did it crease though? It creased so little on me that only I could notice it if I were to look very closely into a mirror. With an eyeshadow primer, it doesn't crease on me.

Overall: This eyeliner is truly a hidden gem amongst the many popular Sephora Collection products. It's cheaper than a lot of the other gel liners from competing brands sold at Sephora, and it holds up just as well if not better. 

Review: Skin79- VIP Gold Super Plus BB Cream

New packaging is smaller and more compact.

Skin79 VIP Gold Super Plus BB Cream- 40g 

        This bb cream is well known and popular. It claims to have whitening properties and help with improving wrinkles with ingredients like Arbutin and Adenosine.

       I purchased this on Ebay from a great seller that I highly reccommend! link here for $13 cad. I have examined this bb cream and it is indeed authentic.

If it is authentic, the 'skin79' and 'BB' logo will be reflective in the light.

There will be an authenticity sticker at the back.

If it has been removed/tampered with, the sticker will look like this.
This is after I peeled it and put it back on. See those marks left behind?

On to the review!

Packaging: 5/5

      The packaging is compact and small. It fits nicely into the palm of my hands for ease of use. The packaging is also very cute and it feels sturdy. I can easily control how much product I want to squeeze out.

Texture&Smell: 5/5

keep in mind my hand is lighter than on camera.

     Out of the container, the bb cream looks gray, but when it blends into the skin, it blends so nicely and flawlessly and it's not gray at all. It matches my yellow nc20 skintone very well! It's really light, but not liquidy in texture. It doesn't feel greasy or sticky after application. The finish is also a satin finish; not matte, but not dewy. In other words, it looks like real skin.
The scent is a faint floral smell, and I actually really like it. It's not too flower-y.

Coverage: 3/5

after blending- satin finish-very natural.

      Coverage is light/medium. I didn't cover any acne scars but it did even out my skintone and reduce some of my redness/ rosacea. I like this bb cream because it's lightweight and it looks really natural on my skin. Most importantly, no one could tell that I was wearing bb cream! The only downside to this bb cream is that it accentuates dry flakes on my nose. Dry skin girls, make sure you moisturize before using this! I also didn't see any patching on my face later on in the day, so that's a plus!

Overall thoughts: Nice elegant packaging, natural coverage, good scent, matches my skintone, and it's affordable! I really like this bb cream for lazy days or days where I just want to have a very natural, light makeup look :)


Thanks for reading, cnteablog ^^

Review: Too Faced - 3 Way Lash Lining Tool

Hey guys! ^^
         This is my review on a new product that recently came out. It's an eyeliner from Too Faced! This eyeliner claims to make eye-lining easy, and gives you 3 easy ways for eye-lining application. I got it in black for $22 in the U.S. (In Canada, it is $32 at Sephora). It contains 0.02 Fl. Oz/ 0.8 mL of product in it.

       What I noticed is that this eyeliner looks EXTREMELY similar to the Holika Holika Drawing Dot Liner, which was indeed released much earlier than this Too Faced one. If you guys aren't aware, Holika Holika is a Korean makeup brand that is quite successful. The 3-pronged eye-lining tip is almost identical between the two. I will be reviewing Holika Holika's eyeliner soon!

Packaging: 5/5

The Eyeliner!

       The packaging always looks like a Too Faced product. The Eyeliner itself has a snap-on cap and the eyeliner pen is thin and small, something that I could put in my bag for on-the-go use. The size of the eyeliner allows for easy application.

Colour: 4.5/5

It is a liquid formula.
You can see it seeping into the lines on my hand,
however it won't look like that on your eyelids! Trust me ;)

       The reason this eyeliner gets a 4.5 in colour is because it's dark, but not pitch black. I've seen darker, more pigmented liners.

Finish: Almost all liquid liners have a shiny finish. This product is no different.

Smudge test: 5/5
        Once fully dried, I attempted to smudge it with my fingers really hard. It does NOT smudge. The only notable difference is that the intensity of the black was slightly lessened. Other than that, no evident smearing of product was on my hand. The eyeliner comes off with a bit of water and some rubbing.
Crease test: 5/5
        After a full 6 hours of leaving this product on, it did crease a very little bit. You could not even see the creasing on my eyelid unless you looked into a really close mirror like I did to check. I gave this a 5/5 because my eyelids are very oily; (even gel eyeliner can't hold up on me!) so this actually held up very well.

Eye-lining process:

eyeliner looks like this:

what it looks like on the side

       IT WAS VERY EASY. Not difficult to make a thin, even line, or a thicker cat-eye look; whichever look you prefer. It's definitely a versatile eyeliner. The eyeliner is felt-tipped, of similar texture to the very popular drugstore liner: L'oreal Lineur Intense Felt-Tip Liner. Like the ladder, the eyeliner tip does give way to pressure (meaning that it is a tad bit soft/flimsy), which I think is good for a smooth application of eyeliner.
It also easily fills in those gaps between my eyelashes. Filling in those gaps will make your lashes look thicker.

Overall: I do like this eyeliner. Packaging is simple and nice, colour pay-off is good, it's long-lasting, and it's easy to use. Would I buy it again? Probably not , only because it is a bit pricey for an eyeliner.

~Stay tuned for my review on the Holika Holika eyeliner in the near future~
Thanks for reading guys! Love, cnteablog ^^

Review: L'egere White Multi BB Cream

50g of product, goes for $20-30, depending on where you buy it.

Hey guys! ^^
       What is bb cream? It stands for "blemish balm" and it is basically a tinted moisturizer with more good ingredients and properties that will improve the look of your skin (whitening, spf protection, minimize pores, etc) while still giving you coverage.

       If you guys don't know of this product, L'egere is a Korean makeup brand. Famous makeup artist of Taiwan, Kevin Zhou from the 'Queen Show' even featured this product on the show, raving about it.
I got this at Bobodave (click to see  the bb cream).
This product is a good bb cream. After having this for a year, I am 1/2 way through my tube.
Here is why I like it:

Packaging: 4/5

       It's small and convenient to carry around, simple yet classic packaging, easy tube to get just enough product out, however, they could use some improving on the engrish. The front of it says: "sun protect+makeup base+skin cover+foundations for 24hrs+skinwhite+transparent+moisture and elastic".

Texture&Scent: thick, yet blendable. Feels smooth when blended. After application, it doesn't feel sticky/wet. It smells good, not floral. I can't exactly explain what it smells like, but I actually enjoy the scent. It's very pleasant. It's definitely not a strong scent, but it does linger for awhile on the skin.

Colour: 4.5

Initial thoughts: Don't be fooled! It does look dark right out of the tube but when blended, it will match your skintone.
After application: It comes off just a tad bit paler than my skintone (I'm nc20 - yellow/warm undertones), but if I apply a thinner layer, it suits my skin colour.

I do notice that this bb cream does not have a yellow undertone to it..It is more on the neutral side leaning towards pink. 

(keep in mind my hand is much lighter than in photo!)

Coverage: 4/5

Fully blended!

       I'd say this is one of those bb creams that will definitely give you more coverage, around medium coverage, maybe even full coverage if you want, without the cakey look. It covers my acne scars a bit, making them look lighter, but definitely not invisible. It also covers my rosacea (redness) pretty well. The finish is dewy, which I love!

Oil Control: 3/5
       On hot summer days, even a person with dry/normal skin like me, I notice that oil control is not that great. On drier days, it is more moisturizing than other bb creams I've tried, but it will accentuate my dry flakes.

Product Claims: As far as whitening goes, I don't think it whitens my skin, even though it does contain 500mg of arbutin; a popular whitening ingredient.

Here are the ingredients: Arbutin, Cyclomethicone, Jojoba oil, Polyglceyl-4 Isoterate, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1Dimethicone, Bees Wax, Tocopheryl acetate, Propyl Parabem,Sorbita sesquioleate, Petrolatum, Titanium oxides, Cyslopentasiloxane, Iron Oxides / Dimethicone, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Magnesium Sulfate, Methyl Paraben, Sodium Hysluronate, Marine Collagen, Rose Water, Centella Asiaticac

Thank you so much for reading! Love you all, cnteablog ^^

Holy Grail: Cleanser & Skincare (Aveeno)

Aveeno's Clear Complexion Cream Cleanser for Acne-Prone Skin- 141g - $12C

       A little background to my skin type: Normal/Dry skin year-round. A tad bit oily on the T-zone during the summer and VERY dry in the winter. Minimal breakouts (2-4 breakouts a year that leave scars!).

       Aveeno has held quite the reputation over the course of 65+ years, and I'm not surprised. Their stuff is great.

Dermatologist Recommended.
       The most common misconception is the difference between Dermatologist Tested, and Dermatologist Recommended. Of course, the latter is much better, because that means that the dermatologist actually recommends this product to you. Testing a product does not mean they like it, which is why I believe that many people often fall for this little scam of "Dermatologist tested" on skincare labels. Aveeno has been a dermatologist recommended brand for over 60 years. That's pretty awesome, don't you think? :)
        I have tried many cleansers in the past, high and low end and this is the best stuff I have come across. This cleanser contains salicylic acid that helps with preventing and healing breakouts, soy extracts for smooth and nourished skin, and gentle micro beads that help exfoliate off the dead skin cells. It is oil-free, hypoallergenic, and non-comedogenic (doesn't clog pores!).
        To be quite honest, I didn't expect much from this cleanser when I first got it. It was cheap, and I had never tried any Aveeno products prior to purchasing this. I purchased this acne-prone skin cleanser mainly for the purpose of preventing breakouts as a teenager. Is this cleanser drying on my dry skin? Yes and no. This isn't the type of cleanser that I would use every single day; because it is drying and targeted for acne. However, with moderate use (around 2-3 days a week), it isn't drying enough to make me flake. I will use it more often in the summer when I'm oilier to prevent breakouts.
        Know that little red bump you feel coming on your skin? And you think it's just gonna get bigger? Or those tiny bumps on your face that come and go? This cleanser is PERFECT for calming those bumps and making them look smaller, if not already gone.
        The texture is creamy, pearly-white, with light green micro beads. You only need about a dime size of product to cover your entire face. I'm not sure if it is scented, but whatever it is, it smells good. I simply smells..refreshing. The micro beads aren't ultra fine, but I actually prefer the slightly bigger micro beads. Besides, I do have a separate exfoliating scrub that I use prior to cleansing. Once you wash the cleanser off, your skin will look so much clearer and brighter. It makes my face feel cool and refreshed, like mint. And, this cleanser doesn't make your skin feel tight. I like to think it makes my skin feel firm, not tight whatsoever.
       During the winter, I do use this product less often, simply because my skin is extremely dry during that period of the season. I will use this 1-2 times a week, and on the other days, I use a different cleanser with more moisturizing properties. .

The ingredients are simple, yet effective.

       Containing only 12 ingredients, it's easier on the skin, and you yourself won't be confused with what really goes into the cleanser you use. There aren't any unnecessary ingredients.
Ingredients: Water, Cetyl Alcohol, PPG-15 Stearyl Ether, Polysorbate 60, Salicyclic Acid, Steareth-21, Polyethylene, Methyl Lactate, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Cetyl Phosphate, Glycine Soja(Soybean) Seed Extract, Cera Microcristallina, Chromium Hydroxide Green, Parfum.


       This is my ultimate holy grail product of my youth. Although I do continue to switch up my skincare routine every now and then, I somehow always find myself going back to this product (which is how I realized that this was an HG product for me). I've gone through 3 bottles of this of the past 3-4 years. I also introduced this to a family member that has acne-prone and oily skin. She has gone through far more products than I have for her skin type and she LOVES this product as well (She's on her 2nd bottle!). Therefore, I believe it's safe to say that this cleanser is good for all skin types!

Beauty TIP:

Switch up your cleansers!

       Although you may have found your ultimate skincare routine, remember that switching up your skincare products is extremely effective and important! It prevents your skin from becoming used to the same product being used over and over again.Your skin will respond more positively to the switch back to your HG products!! :)

 Thank you for taking the time to read my blog you guys! You rock! Love, cnteablog ^^